The present invention relates to the field of improved retail electronic pricing systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to an economically advantageous price display system which has efficient price entry and price verification while eliminating the need for the costly use of expanded address and expanded distribution of sophisticated electronics and at the same time facilitating shelf and product configuration changes through modular design.
Retail stores which use shelving displays have typically shown a paper or plastic price tag at the edge of the shelf and which has been interchanged manually when the goods have been replaced with different goods, or where the display areas of a particular type of goods is expanded or reduced. Where the tags bear the price of the goods, the tags have been changed whenever the price changes. Of course, a manual system will tend to be more labor intensive and prone to error. When the time spent system which simultaneously transmits the information signal to all price tag addresses is not treated.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,534 to Waterhouse et al., entitled xe2x80x9cElectronic Tag Location Systemsxe2x80x9d deals in part with the cost of hardware located between the central controller and the individual price displays. The Waterhouse et al. invention uses a series of switches. to deny system access between a signal source and certain tag displays and also between tag displays and other groups of tag displays. The bus layout is that of an abbreviated bus where logical switches operate to complete conductive contact of abbreviated bus portions downstream of the switches. Further burdening the system of Waterhouse et al., each switch has its own unique address. Further, the device of Waterhouse et al. includes a duplicated system of identifiers which are used to poll the individual tag locations to determine if the message received by the tag is correct.
One example of the physical layout of an electronic price display system is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,485 issued to Briechle et al., and entitled xe2x80x9cElectronic Price Display System with Vertical Rail.xe2x80x9d The Briechle et al. system discloses a shelving unit, known as a gondola, having a vertically extending electrical connector. The vertically extending electrical connector is physically connected to each electronic display tag located at the outer edge of the shelf. The physical connection of each shelf to a vertical support takes place on the outermost sides of the back edge of each shelf. The hard wire nature of the overall system makes the Briechle et al. system costly and cumbersome, as well as impractical to implement and maintain. Interconnects between the shelf and vertical bus are accomplished manually requiring the user to physically attach a connector to the vertical rail. The system of the present invention accomplishes the connection somewhat automatically during the installation of a shelf to a gondola.
In all of the above examples, no design has been set forth which allows the requisite simplicity and economy to gain wide acceptance in the retail industry. What is needed is an electronic price display system which is of an economic design to permit its widespread acceptance and use. The needed system should provide flexibility and advantages which have been previously associated only with a more expensive system.
A modularized distributed electronic price display system includes a central computer communicating through hard wired or a radio frequency system to receivers located at each aisle. Each receiver at each aisle is wired into each of a series of gondola units. Each gondola unit may be controlled by a single controller or multiple controllers, depending upon the size and number of shelves and number of electronic tags placed under the command of the single controller.
Each level of control beyond the radio frequency receivers at each aisle redistributes information to the next level down by selectively enabling the receipt of the information at each subsequent level of distribution. Each unit connected to the transmitting unit has the message is transmitted to it, but only a unit which is enabled to receive the message into its memory register will actually logically have access to the message. This process continues until the message is loaded into the electronic display. This system eliminates the wiring and hardware at the display which would otherwise be necessary in sending an informational signal to each price tag unit for logical address verification.
Due to extensive modularization in the design, a change in shelving configuration and control distribution can be easily implemented. Once the configuration of the shelving has been changed, if necessary, a change of price can be accomplished at the central station, or remotely from the central station by the use of a radio frequency terminal carried by an attendant. Since a price change will appear instantly within the view of an attendant, proper system operation is assured. In addition, polling from the central computer is enabled to independently determine the price stored in each electronic tag.